Compare And Contrast Pocahontas And The Powhatan Dilemma

While America today is ruled by numerous ethnicities, it seems implausible that at one point the majority of its soil was ruled by one of the lowest percentages of the population today- American Indians. Nowadays one may ponder exactly what happened to this group, and an outstanding source for this information is Camilla Townsend’s Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, which describes the relationship between the English settlers and the Powhatan tribe. Even though their affairs appeared to start out peaceful, they ended up being extremely inconsistent through the book.

Mary Rowlandson was a colonial English woman who was captured and held captive by Indians for just over 11 weeks during King Phillip’s war. In 1682, six years later, Mrs. Rowlandson’s account of those 11 weeks was published under the title A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. In her detailed description, it is observed that Mary lived in fear of her captures. Even though she thought of them as savages, the tribulations she faced renewed her faith and walk with God.

John Smith was born in 1580, so he might have been a 27 year old blond and ruggedly handsome young man, but it is doubtful. But as for Pocahontas, she was born in 1595 and probably around the age of 11 or 12 when she first met John Smith in 1607. Pocahontas, when meeting John Smith, being such a small, young girl, not a woman, was not likely to have yet come into the womanly figure that the Walt Disney Company animated, if ever at all. Images of Pocahontas portray her as being shorter and plumper than the Barbie doll figure Disney gave her on screen. The clothing that Disney draws the characters wearing, especially Pocahontas, even rings of falsities because it was customary for them to have loose cloths draped over them. Pocahontas’ level of beauty is often questioned and really not known, but it is known that John Rolfe, not John Smith, fell madly in love with her, so there had to have been something beautiful about this Indian woman or “savage” as he called her when writing to ask permission to marry her.

As young children we are often misled to believe that the stories and movies we are exposed to are presumably based on factual history, but are in reality myths, keeping the truthful, important, and fair facts hidden. Amonute is an accurate example of learning the real events that occurred in a person’s life while the typical myth of Pocahontas saved an Englishmen from being killed by her father. In the beginning of the book we are briefly introduced to Pocahontas, the Powhatan people and the English colonists. As the book continues we follow Pocahontas when she is kidnapped, her married life, and her trip to London where she got sick because of foreign illnesses and died. Camilla Townsends “Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma” wants Pocahontas’ true story to unfold because she is worthy of respect for her bravery and sacrifice and because “everyone subverted her life to satisfy their own needs to believe that the Indians loved and admired them” (Townsend, pg. xi). I also believe that the author was trying to argue that even though the Englishmen believed that the Native Americans were uncivilized and lived like savages, that instead they were wise people.

Pocahontas was captured by Samuel Argall and during her captivity she became pregnant. The father was a mystery, but she was supposed to be marrying me. We got married on April 5, 1614 and then her baby was born on January 30, 1615. We were blessed with thousands of acres of land from Pocahontas’ father, Chief Powhatan. My wife, our baby, and I traveled to England on the ship, Treasurer, in 1616. Pocahontas was soon addressed by the name, Princess Pocahontas, because she was so widely respected. While in England, we visited Queen Anne and King James I. While in London, Pocahontas met John Smith who she thought was dead. We stayed and toured England for several months, and on our trip back home Pocahontas became very ill and died. I returned back to Virginia while Thomas, our son, stayed in England. I soon married the daughter of a colonist. Her name was Jane Pierce. Soon after we married, we had a daughter and named her Elizabeth. My house was on my tobacco plantation, and it was attacked by stupid Native Indians. I honestly don’t know why they hate me so much. It’s devastating. There, I was left stranded with no help, just lying in the grass. It’s my time to go…

In the lecture, Mirrored Archetype: The Contrasting Cultural Roles of La Malinche and Pocahontas tells that Pocahontas rescue to John Smith from execution by laying her over his head . In the film show the same action Pocahontas opposes that they kill Smith and tells his father not to do that he can learn things about him. Another of the scene of the film shows when Pocahontas went to live with the English and a lady proposes that if she wants to be

In Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, all of these things are expressed, and she discusses her entire journey through captivity. One of the main things to take away from this narrative is the amount of faith that is portrayed throughout all the difficult times. Anyone who were to read this captivity narrative would recognize how important Rowlandson’s faith was to her and her family; even though the Indians did

Sophie Gilbert says that the “environmentalist message” was powerful and unique. The facts, sadly, are not so positive. The movie would have still been great, even if names where changed, but would it still have appeal? Many people, children and adults alike, grow up thinking that they know the story of Pocahontas. A Powhatan Chief, Roy Crazy Horse, stated “It is unfortunate that this sad story, which Euro-Americans should find embarrassing, Disney makes ‘entertainment’ and perpetuates a dishonest and self-serving myth at the expense of the Powhatan Nation”, although creators of the movie may have thought that it would be harmless, people could still find offense to Pocahontas. James Allen, who knew the history of Matoaka, decided that “turning a story like that into something fluffy and “empowering” is just uncomfortable” and if the real history was ever made known among the public, people would most likely agree.

Price also points out that “She was curious about English and she enjoyed being among them. In Smith, she had found an Englishman who would speak her language.” (Price 127) When Pocahontas as well as her people are informed that he has passed on, she leaves the English settlement for a short period of time. At this point she is treated kindly and before being married to Rolfe she is converted to Christianity. While in marriage, Pocahontas plays a significant role in saving the colony from the hands of her

Powhatan and Pocahontas have a very endearing relationship filled with mutual love and respect for each other. Pocahontas is very brave and spirited, which can cause her to get in trouble like any young adult. Powhatan seems to admire Pocahontas for her wild spirit because he encourages her explorations and is eager to her about the things that she does. Like all father-daughter relationships, there is a power struggle seen when the two disagree. However, after explaining their differences and reason behind them, the two always respect what the other has to say and in the end come to a resolution.

These are so many influential people in the world we live in. These many people positively change the world by their actions such as putting other lives before theirs, leading the path for others, and remembering to stay kind and helpful. Pocahontas, a friendly Powhatan Indian, and a brave friend, is one of those influential people. Pocahontas is influential because of her accomplishments, legacy, and her character.

[1] Disney’s Pocahontas has understandably received a lot of flak about the historically inaccurate story that is told about the legendary Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. There is a good reason for that. The movie does little that can be construed as historically accurate, yet Disney claims that was never their intent. Disney, in their previous movies, has been attacked for being racist and unsympathetic to racial minorities. Their answer was a movie whose sole purpose, as stated by Disney, was to promote racial tolerance. The question is, then can a movie promote racial tolerance when the issue is built on false history, history that if told accurately would depict the exact opposite?

Moreover, research also examined the effects of age on participants in regards to the onset of false memory. With materials and testing procedures that have been repeatedly found to produce higher levels of false memory, older children are more susceptible to generating false memories than younger children (Holliday, Brainerd & Reyna, 2010). This is particularly realistic in the DRM lists (Holliday, Brainerd &

Memory does not work like a video camera, smoothly recording every detail. Instead, memory is more of a constructive process. We remember the details that we find most important and relevant. Due to the reconstructive nature of memory, the assimilation of old and new information has the ability to cause vulnerable memories to become distorted. This is also known as the misinformation effect (Loftus, 1997). It is not uncommon for individuals to fill in memory gaps with what they assume they must have experienced. We not only distort memories for events that we have observed, but, we may also have false memories for events that never occurred at all. False memories are “often created by combing actual memories with suggestions received from

Here is the real-life story about Pocahontas, not the Disney nor fairytale that most people are likely to recognize her by. Pocahontas was an empowering Powhatan Native American woman during the early 17th century. She was born into the Powhatan tribe in Werowocomoco, Virginia around 1595 and passed away in Gravesend, England of 1617. The family of tribes that Pocahontas belonged to was called the Tsenacommacah, and they occupied the region of Tidewater, Virginia. In her home-tribe, she was considered to be the favourite daughter of the chief, Powhatan. Her real name was actually Matoaka but the Algonquians nicknamed her Pocahontas which roughly translates to “happy little brat”. Later, she is known to be Rebecca Rolfe who lived in England